Survival Training

Air Training Command prepares its aircrew members to be the best in the
world. One of the fundamental and absolutely essential segments of ATC’s air training program is the survival course conducted
by the USAFSurvivalSchool at Fairchild AFB, Washington. This
training provides the principles, procedures, and techniques that may directly
save an aircrew member’s life and enable him to return to his unit without
giving aid or comfort to the enemy. It is often the final and, to the
individual, most important step in preparing the man.

Survival schools for training military personnel have been in existence
since the early part of World War II, but they were scattered, and no attempt
was made to centralize control or standardize curricula.

In December 1949, under the stimulus of General Curtis E. LeMay, then Commander of the
Strategic Air Command, a school for survival was established at Camp Carson, Colorado.
Training began on 1 April 1950. Initially, the school was
operated by the 3904th Training Squadron of Strategic Air Command. The faculty
and staff were a cadre of survival specialists
gathered from Air Force, Army, and reserve sources. The school was designed to
satisfy the needs of SAC and its mission of that day.

In 1952 the school moved from CampCarson to Stead AFB, Nevada. The Air Training Command assumed
responsibility for providing Air Force survival training on 1 September 1954.
The school operated under a wing, group, and squadron setup. The wing was a
crew training wing originally, finally becoming a flying training wing. The
squadron as such went through a series of name changes and finally was known as
the 3637th Combat Crew Training Squadron, operated by the 3636th Flying
Training Wing. After Stead was deactivated, elements from the old wing, group,
and squadron moved to Fairchild AFB, Washington.
There are two entities at Fairchild—the USAFSurvivalSchool and the 3636th
Combat Crew Training Group, which operates the school.

Since CampCarson
days, the SurvivalSchool has trained almost
100,000 students in the art of combat survival. (From 1 April
1950 to 21 December 1967, 93,000 students were trained.) During fiscal
year 1968, the school trained 9317 students in its several courses, 7965 of
them in the regular survival course.

Knowledge gained during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and the
continuing cold war has necessitated changes in the curriculum to satisfy the
requirements of the larger number of students now attending the courses. These
include not only U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine personnel but military
personnel from many allied countries. “The School’s mission is to train
selected personnel in the employment of principles, procedures, equipment, and
techniques which permit a person to survive regardless of climatic conditions
or unfriendly environments, and return to his organization.” The goal that
challenges all students is to return with honor. In addition, the student will
understand the basic concepts of guerrilla activity, causative factors of
insurgency, and the organization concept of Special Forces. Under Air Force
Regulation 53-28, 26 July 1966, the school’s functions are, among other
activities, to conduct academic and operational training in basic survival (the
preservation of one’s life against immediate perils such as starvation,
drowning, dehydration, heat, cold, injuries, bacteria, and radioactivity); in
combat survival (those measures to be taken by service personnel when
involuntarily separated from friendly forces in combat, including procedures
relating to individual survival, evasion, escape, and conduct after capture);
in evasion and escape (the procedures and operations whereby military personnel
and other selected individuals are enabled to emerge from an enemy-held or hostile
area to areas under friendly control); in counterinsurgency operations; and in
special training as directed. To carry out these functions, the USAFSurvivalSchool conducts the
regular survival course (S-V80-A), which develops as follows:

a. On-base training (exclusive of Resistance Training Laboratory)

b. Resistance Training Laboratory

c. Field training (operational training):

(1) Static camp (transition training)

(2) Mobile training (advanced transition and operational training).

In reality the course is not “phased.” For example, training in the on-base
portion lays the foundation for the Resistance Training Laboratory and field
training which follow; training in fieldcraft and
travel techniques must be accomplished on a continuing basis throughout all the
field training that is accomplished under direct instructor influence, both in
static camp and during mobile training.

The classroom portion of survival training prepares the aircrew member by
giving him basic and advanced survival theory. In order to give a student the
background and tools which he will need to complete this rugged course
successfully, he is given a wide variety of classroom and practical
instruction. During the nine days (formerly 12) devoted to classroom and laboratory
training, the student is instructed in parachute control and landing; water
survival; survival medicine and hygiene; special problems posed by life as a
prisoner of war, resistance to all aspects of exploitation, and escape; the
procurement of food from available plants, fish, and game; and other survival
principles. He is informed of the representative types of terrain and climate
the world over and the hazards associated with each. He also learns the
principles of land navigation, camouflage, and evasion movement.

Some of the more interesting segments of this on-base training are lab
phases in parachute training and water survival.

Five academic training hours of Course S-V80-A are devoted to parachute
instruction and helicopter recovery. One hour is spent explaining the
principles and procedures for control of the parachute in the air, landing
falls, and recovery. Four hours are spent in actual practice.

The class is divided into five separate groups, which interchange after each
segment of demonstration and practice is completed. Group 1 practices control
of the parachute in the air, recovery from a faulty opening, and body position
for landing in open field, water, high-tension wires, and trees. The
instruction includes how to make a mid-air modification that will give a more steerable parachute (e.g., the four line
cut).

Group 2 meanwhile is being taught how to make a parachute landing fall (PLF)
from four basic positions—front, right side, left side, and rear—starting
from a standing position on the ground and advancing to a four-foot platform.
The correct falling procedures for a successful injury-free parachute landing
are demonstrated. Then each student participates and is critiqued on his
ability to effect a good landing, regardless of the
direction of the fall.

Group 3 is being taught how to make a successful recovery or rescue by
helicopter. The student learns how to use the new tree-escape letdown device
which enables him to reach the ground if he becomes hung up in a tree after a
parachute jump. He gets three rides in a simulated helicopter hoist (stationary
tower), which is approximately 25 feet high; one ride is with the conventional
sling, and two are with the newly designed forest penetrator.

Group 4 is learning how to avoid being dragged by a full canopy if caught in
a high wind. This is an important phase of jump training, for a full canopy in
a 20-knot wind can be a great danger to a person who has otherwise made a good
landing. Here the student is taught to lie on his back, head and legs raised,
spring open the quick releases, and spill air from his parachute. A method for
a quick roll from stomach to back is also taught and practiced.

Group 5, starting in January 1966, began using the newest parachute training
aid, the swing landing trainer, which more realistically simulates a parachute
landing fall. The student is in a harness while being lowered and swung
as he falls approximately 12 feet. The instructor can control the speed
of the fall, but the student cannot predict where or in what position he will
land. This is advanced PLF training and is an important new segment of
parachuting instruction.

The parachute training received at the USAFSurvivalSchool is not designed to
jump-qualify the student. Its purpose is to give him confidence in his
parachute equipment and in his own ability to take care of himself in survival
situations. The student generally enjoys and appreciates this training,
knowing that one day it may help him make safe parachute descent and landing.

Water survival is another important segment of survival training. The
student gets two hours of instruction in emergency parachuting principles over
water and the use of water survival equipment until rescue and recovery. He
becomes familiar with his emergency water gear through a preliminary lecture
before moving to the pool area for actual water instruction. The student is
dropped from a high tower, simulating a water parachute landing. He learns how
to prepare for the water landing, correctly enter the water, and release his
parachute. Thus he enters into instruction in using life preservers and one-man
and multiman rafts. A recent addition to the course
teaches the student how to cope with a parachute canopy that collapses on him
once he has hit the water.

Survival Course S-V80-A also includes resistance training. After being given
intensive classroom preparation, the student enters the Obstacle Penetration
Lab. After sunset, he covers the mile-long obstacle course. He is hindered by
barbed wire, flares to betray his position, obstacles like those found on many
territorial borders, and school instructors acting as guards.

Upon completing the obstacle course, the student is captured by school
instructors masquerading as the enemy. This signals the beginning of the
Resistance Training Laboratory, one of the most significant sections of
training, particularly in what the student learns about himself. He is faced
with simulated enemy interrogations and periods of isolation and cramped
quarters. Later he is confronted with compound life in a prisoner-of-war camp,
where the students as a group are faced with more and different problems
relating to honorable survival while in captivity.

After each segment of this training, the student is critiqued by school
instructors so that problem areas can be identified. These critiques are
designed to make the student aware of his mistakes and give him the information
necessary to correct them.

With his on-base classroom training and Resistance Training Lab completed,
the student moves into the next portion of training, the static camp portion of
field training. Instruction in the field is extremely important, for it is in
the field that the survival principles, procedures, and techniques taught in
the classroom take on new meaning as they are applied in actual situations.

Students are taken to one of the three training areas in the Kaniksu and ColvilleNational Forests, approximately 65
miles north of Spokane,
for their field training, which is divided into static camp and mobile training.
For the training period of 5 ½ days, each student is issued survival and fresh
rations totaling approximately 2500 calories. This supply of food, augmented by
what the enterprising student can procure off the land, will be his sustenance
during this period.

Transition survival training, conducted in the static camp for three days,
gives the students an opportunity to practice field techniques while living in
a semi-permanent camp. They are grouped in small training elements, each with
its own instructor. The instructor explains, discusses, and demonstrates
survival principles, techniques, and procedures, and the student practices
under the instructor’s supervision. Static camp serves as a transition between
the academic phase and the mobile phase of training, as it gives the student an
opportunity to review knowledge and skills introduced during on-base training
and permits him to integrate this introductory material with field application.

The student learns the principles and techniques of personal protection
(shelter and clothing); shelter location and selection; shelter construction;
fire-craft; care and use of equipment; improvised clothing and equipment;
procurement, preparation, and preservation of food and water; field medicine
and personal hygiene; survival under radioactive fallout conditions;
preparation of communications; position determination; and day and night
navigation on the ground (orientation).

At the end of each day in static camp, the instructor evaluates the
performance of his element and each individual member. Constructive
criticism and extra instruction when needed ensure that every student learns
the essential survival principles and can put them into practice.

Following static camp, students move into perhaps the most demanding portion
of survival training, the mobile training.

Mobile field training gives the student the opportunity to apply basic
field-craft and travel techniques under changing conditions. Gradually the
enemy opposition buildup (in the form of aggressor forces) and combat survival
situations put a greater demand on the student’s capabilities. While under this
stress, he must put into practice what he has learned in the on-base and static
camp training. The mobile training is the real test of the principles and
techniques he has been learning. The last portion of the mobile training is
called “confidence training,” and rightly so. Successful completion of the
mobile phase significantly increases the student’s confidence that he can apply
what he has learned and return safely from any emergency.

In the mobile training, which lasts two and one-half days, the students are
again grouped in small training elements, each with its own instructor.
However, direct instructor supervision and assistance are gradually withdrawn.
The first two days, the students travel as an element force with their
instructor nearby; after that, they pair off without an instructor.

The students travel by day and night, are harassed by a simulated aggressor
enemy force, and attempt to evade capture by the enemy. A major problem
encountered is ground navigation, but other important segments of training are
presented: enemy harassment, evasion problems, cooperation with friendly
forces, plus all the basic field-craft learned in static camp and the early
part of mobile training (shelters, food, water, equipment, etc.). Upon
completing the mobile training, each man can look back with a smile that
reflects his feelings: “I survived.”

The USAFSurvivalSchool
has a staff and faculty of highly skilled specialists with a wide range of the
knowledge required by global combat survival training. The philosophy of the
school is to teach the skills which will enable the student to survive in the
event of a future emergency. The school must keep up to date on changing world
conditions, keep abreast of military and technology developments, and
continually adapt itself to the requirements of various commands of the Air
Force.

In the last analysis, the main concern of the school is with the man, the
individual. The goal of the school is his safe and honorable return from any
emergency, whether it involves dealing with an enemy or not. That he may “Survive
To Fight Again,” the school is dedicated to providing
the individual with the tools and training which will enable him to cope with
any emergency anywhere on the globe.

Second Lieutenant Robert M. Zickes is
Information Officer, USAFSurvivalSchool,
Fairchild AFB, Washington.
Before graduating from the University of Notre Dame in
1967, he worked for the school radio station as an announcer and public
relations director. Commissioned through OfficerTraining School
in September 1967 Lieutenant Zickes joined the 3636th
Combat Crew Training Group (ATC) (Survival) and took the Survival Training
Course before assuming his present duty.

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this
document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression,
academic environment of AirUniversity. They do not
reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense,
the United States Air Force or the AirUniversity.